As far as Republican presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson is concerned, the Islamic State (ISIS) has already declared war on the United States and it is time Americans accept that fact.
"Make no mistake about it: We are at war," he writes in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post. "It is not a war against an opposing nation. The Islamic State is not a sovereign in the territorial sense but is a sick and twisted ideology that seeks to engulf the region and turn back the clock to the Dark Ages."
Should he become president, Carson said his plan to defeat the ISIS would include appealing "directly to the moderate Kurds, Syrians and Iraqis."
"We must convince them that the Islamic State poses a fundamental threat to their existence," he explains. "And we must equip them with the means to convey that message to their people. This will require a multi-pronged communications strategy that leverages our strengths in media production and messaging, combined with cutting off traditional access routes to social media for radical Islamist groups."
Since the ISIS is on the offensive right now, obliterating Christian minorities left and right and initiating terror attacks, Carson believes that America "must do more to counter their fighters and eviscerate their infrastructure."
This would mean that ISIS' sources of supply and funding would have to be cut off. Carson said the Islamic jihadis are getting money from the oil fields along the eastern Syrian border. The U.S.-led coalition must either destroy these oilfields through airstrikes or confiscate them in partnership with local Iraqi, Turkish, and Kurdish troops.
"The United States can lead the way in developing a political framework and military strategy that enables this to happen. Ongoing military and economic development assistance to these nations would have to be tied to their cooperation in securing the Syrian oil fields," he says.
The former neurosurgeon also wants to block the strong presence of the ISIS on media and re-establish safe zones in Iraq and Syria, underscoring that he will not be opening American borders to refugees at this time.
"These zones would be administered and controlled by local moderate forces, with financial support and military coordination provided by Western countries," he explains. "This would not involve a significant on-the-ground presence of Western armies. But we would provide humanitarian aid in the form of shelter, food, water and medical care to fleeing refugees."
At the same time, Carson would be strengthening the U.S. border with Mexico. "The United States must be willing to lead the free world," he says. "We need to restore America's standing by winning over the hearts and minds of populations affected by radical Islamist violence."
